So lately I have had the boat itch in a bad kind of way. So bad that I'm having trouble sleeping at night. (Night before opening day effect) it all started when scotth89 put his boat up for sale. I've always liked the idea of owning a boat, and even had a few Junkers in the past, just never had a nice boat, or really even had the "itch". Well now I do. With a wedding around the corner, I just didn't see how I could buy one, but when you have an itch, you gotta scratch it.
About 10 years ago my dad bought an old boat to rebuild, and life got in the way, well actually an airplane build got in the way. Anyhow the boat was tucked away in a shop and forgotten about. The airplane to keep y'all interested.
After almost getting a divorce before getting married, I quickly learned that we can't postpone the wedding another year for me to buy Scott's boat. Then I remembered the old ugly boat from 10 years ago, called dad and the convo went something like, " come get it, if you fix it up you can have it. As long as you call when the fish are biting, and I can borrow it if I want to go while you're working." (He's retired)
Yesterday I got up and cleaned up one bay of my shop, and today I went and picked up the boat. 1984 alumaweld, 1984 evenrude 70hp with a side console. It has an aluminum deck in front and back, and wood floors and sides. The plan is to pull all of the carpet, wood, and side console. Extend the front deck, add a center console, and possibly a jack plate and float boxes, metal floor and sides. I will also strip the paint and repaint a drab green or something. Then hydroturf the inside. Maybe after the wedding I'll put a new motor on it. Anyhow this is how it looked when I picked it up.
I put my helpers to work and this is how it sits.
Tomorrow I will get the rest of the floor out, then hual the motor to my uncle's boat shop. While in town I'll get some paint stripper and hopefully get it stripped tomorrow.

Pretty much doing the same stuff, when you strip the paint buy the aluminum aircraft stripper kind. If you have a power washer use it, if you don't, I recommend renting one. Saves a lot of time and back ache for me!

Well I got the rest of the wood out this morning. Bought a new battery and a fresh tank of gas, and just for giggles I bumped the key on it. (This boat hasn't been touched in at least 8 years, prob more like 10) and this stupid thing fired off immediately. I mean purrs like a kitten. The only problem is I pulled the console and steering wheel out of it yesterday. Ohh well this forces me to finish the boat out like I wanted instead of putting it in the water and playing.

My dad used to race boats in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His class raced those 3 cylinder Johnson and Evinrude 75 HP engines. I never saw one blow up, and they ran forever, while tacking about 6500 RPM. They would run close to 80 MPH on tunnel boats and almost 70 MPH on a 13' V-bottom. That's a great engine.

I would go ahead and give the motor at least a basic tune up and replace all the fuel lines with ethanol safe lines to prevent any future issues.

I called dad after posting that last night, and he said right before he put it up the motor was completely gone thru, and ran out of gas. (No wonder it started). So the motor was sitting dry with all now lines, hoses, plugs, carb kits. Basically a new motor. So then of course I had to ask why there was a running boat in the shop for 13 years and I've been chasing fish from every bank/ditch I can find that might hold a fish. He had some smart allec answer like I said the boat was too ugly or something. I guess I was too proud at 18 yrs old. It is ugly as homemade soap, but it's a running boat. Sometimes ID like to go back and slap 18 yr old me.

I agree with the fuel lines. We just recently bought an 86 model V4 90hp. Under full throttle we started having gas leaks from the pressure. New lines all the way around and runs like a top. I see lots of potential with this new/old boat.

So I've got some motor problems. On the water hose and earmuffs, it runs like a scalded ape. in the water it barely starts, when it does it idles rough. It runs a little better with motor tilted way up. Any ideas?

Mentioning the tilt issue almost sounds like a fuel pump or carb issue.

I would start with the carb and unless those new lines that were put on before it was stored are ethanol safe I would go ahead and replace em to avoid more problems. It's not if the ethanol messes them up just when.

So I've got some motor problems. On the water hose and earmuffs, it runs like a scalded ape. in the water it barely starts, when it does it idles rough. It runs a little better with motor tilted way up. Any ideas?

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When mine struggled to run and bogged under a load it needed a carb job.
Not related to the issues, but swap out that old impeller, too.

Well I'm back on this project, talked to an aluminum guy this week. He's going to put a floor, float boxes, center console, and extend the front deck with storage. He gets the boat Friday. Until then, I'm tinkering. Almost got all of the paint off. Then will be on to removing little crap, like lights and stuff. Should be fish ready by middle of may.

My first mfg boat was a 1946 Silverline flatbottom V-nose about 13'-10" long. My grandfather's neighbor bought it after the WWII. Both were pilots. My grandfather went with him when he bought it. And the story goes:

Neighbor: "Do you think an aluminum boat will last?"
My grandfather: "Well, their making airplanes out of it now..."

I bought the boat from the neighbor widow some years after the owner passed. I had been using it at my grandfather's lake house for about 15 years before that since it rested on the neighbor's property. Bought it in '92. Sold it in 2000. Silverline went on to become a yacht company after the war.

I called dad after posting that last night, and he said right before he put it up the motor was completely gone thru, and ran out of gas. (No wonder it started). So the motor was sitting dry with all now lines, hoses, plugs, carb kits. Basically a new motor. So then of course I had to ask why there was a running boat in the shop for 13 years and I've been chasing fish from every bank/ditch I can find that might hold a fish. He had some smart allec answer like I said the boat was too ugly or something. I guess I was too proud at 18 yrs old. It is ugly as homemade soap, but it's a running boat. Sometimes ID like to go back and slap 18 yr old me.

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I had to chuckle at this...cause I've had that desire MANY times in the last 20 years

I'll be following also, if you need any ideas or tips, checkout TinBoats website. There are some amazing rebuilds on there, that have given me the itch many times over the last 6-8 years. I just haven't given in to the itch yet

Let's get back on this project. I dropped the boat off to the aluminum man somewhere in the middle of April, while he was slow, he did a bang up job. First task was to extend the front deck and add a big dry storage box.
He then cut the transom out, and built an all aluminum transom. I didn't want any wood in the boat. Also added float boxes.
Next up were floors, sides, and center console with bait well.
The original seat pedalstools were all rusted up, so I ordered new aluminum ones that he welded in. Also had him move the front one back now that I have a bigger deck.
Now I was torn on how I wanted to do my leaning post. Remember this boat is only 16' 6" and I want it to fish as "big" as possible. I was worried that a leaning post would have to overhang the back deck, taking up too much room to only serve a single purpose. I ended up buying a cooler, having him build a way for it to stay stationary, and it serves as a leaning post, back seat for fishing, and dry storage/cooler. I also had him put seat pedalstools on both sides for riders while moving.
The last thing on the list was a place for anchor rods. He put one in the back, and one up front thru the bow.
I had him leave the floor and console loose so I can hide wires, once the wires are ran I will fasten the floor with rivets, which will be covered by hydro-turf. Then the console will be bolted down into tapped 3/16ths supports he welded in the floor.
Now I knew when he was finished I had several days of misery coming in prep work to get it ready for paint. I was dreading this. Anyhow I picked it up yesterday and headed to Sherwin Williams for paint. There was i gentleman in there getting paint and he was paying attention to our order. After walking out the there was Lorence, a man I had never seen, but he wanted to talk. He said
"man that sure is gonna be a nice boat, but you've got alot of work to do to paint it, I think I can help you out."
"I'm all ears pal, what ya got in mind?"
"I've got a little sand blaster at the house, and I can blast that boat in about an hour for ya. I'll do it for $150".
"Sign me up bud, I'll be there in 30 mins."
So off to sutherlands for some number 5 blasting media, then to see Mr Lorence.
This fella whipped er out in no time. After he was finished, we shot the bull for a bit and I asked him why he offered to help me like that. You see, when I got to his house, he had a stack of work to be blasted ahead of me. He said man I'm not real sure, I see things all of the time that need work and never speak up, but I felt like I needed to today. I for sure don't know the reason, but God was definitely on my side, as this put me way ahead of schedule.
After he was finished, this is how she sat. Still full of sand, but you get the idea.
In the meantime, I have been concerned about my motor. Didn't have any reason to be, as it ran great, just uneasy about its age. It is a 33 yr old 70hp evenrude. I accidentally came across a steal on an '05 90hp Yammy with a hydraulic jack plate that I couldn't pass up. This is getting expensive.
That's all for now. It's time to start pulling wires. I have to work Monday, but other than that, I'm off until Friday night. This should be a finished project before I go back to work Friday. Hang around it should move fast.

Just rebuilt the Yammy? What was the reason if you don't mind me asking?

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Well this is going to be a long story. I acquired the boy in a trade. Even with me putting 1500 into the rebuild I still had the better end of the deal. Going across lake conroe and the fuel pump goes out. (It runs off vacuum and the valves colapsed) so I limp it back to the ramp and get it home. I buy a new pump and decided to pull the plugs while I was there. And well number 2 cylinder was full of metal shavings. It had a hole burned in the piston. I had lake tested the boat and it ran AMAZING! So I tear it completely down and did a complete rebuild. Bored 30 over to get scaring out and end up putting boysen 2 stage reeds in it and bigger jets in the carbs. New water pump and resealed the power unit and then ended up selling the boat about a year later because the wife got pregnant and we needed something bigger for the 5 of us. So now I have a 19' key west with a 115 yamaha four stroke.

Well there is not a whole lot to see at the end of the day. I ran pex water line everywhere I will need a wire. I did this for two reasons. It cleans up the look, and if I need to run another wire later down the road, I can just feed it through the pex. I hope it works as easy as it does in my head.
Next I put the floor in, temporarily screwed it down so I knew where to drill through it to run steering and shifting cables.
Every job has to have a screw up, I hope this is my only one on this project. I drilled through my brand new transom for water pick up for the bait well. After getting the fitting in, there is no doubt that it will get broken where it is. My fuel tank goes there. If this fitting breaks, the boat sinks. I think instead of patching it, I will cut it off behind the nut, and plug it. That way it still looks like a functioning part of the boat, instead of patching work.
I am pretty much ready for paint at this point. After church tomorrow I will clean it out, vacuum it, then shoot some paint. While I was working today I realized it was Saturday and I wouldn't be able to get paint tomorrow, so I had to run to town. This took up alot of today's time. (Town is 30 mins away)

I haven't thought about that. I have some time to figure it out, as I don't really need the bait well right now. When I figure out how it's going to sit/ride, and where I need the extra weight, I'll have one built. After that I'll plumb in my baitwell.

After church today, I came home, gave the boat one more good cleaning, then got to work painting the inside. You'll notice the inside isn't finished looking, but I'll have hydro-turf on anything unfinished.
About halfway through the inside, I knew I didn't buy enough paint to finish. Not much I can do now, but spray what I have. I didn't want to have to wait for this to dry, then flip the boat to paint the bottom, so I had to come up with a plan to paint everything at onxe. (At least until I run out of paint) Saw horses in the back, hanging in the front by FEL then pull the trailer out from under it. It's holding well, the inside is painted, float boxes, gunnels, transom, and 1 1/2 sides. I'm lacking a half side and the bottom.
Think I'm going to get enough paint to finish and add a second coat. I should be able to do that tomorrow after work. Tuesday I should have motor on, and everything wired up. I'll have to make a run to get registration/boat numbers Wednesday morning, then hopefully put this rig in the water Wednesday after lunch.

Another day without much to see. Got more paint this morning and finished it out. Put a second coat on everything that was painted yesterday, then a second coat on today's this evening. Tomorrow, it should at least look finished. Hopefully on the water Wednesday. Not much for pics today.